WGA West PAC Had Strong Election Night, Helped Flip The House

The WGA West’s political action committee had a strong midterm election night, helping to flip the House of Representatives. Twenty-seven of the 31 candidates it endorsed – all Democrats – were elected, including 18 of the 19 House candidates it backed, and nine of its 14 senatorial picks.

Most of the candidates it supported were incumbents, but the union also backed two candidates who defeated incumbent Republicans: Jackie Rosen, who unseated Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, and Harley Rouda, who ousted longtime Southern California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and helped give the Democrats control of the House.

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The guild’s PAC, which backed up its endorsements with more than $200,000 in campaign contributions, also supported winning senators Dianne Feinstein, Elizabeth Warren, Jon Tester, Tammy Baldwin, Sherrod Brown, Maria Cantwell and Amy Klobuchar along with Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Dems. The losing senatorial candidates it backed were Heidi Heitkamp, Claire McCaskill, Phil Bredesen, Joe Donnelly and Bill Nelson, though the latter’s chief of staff says that race is headed for a recount.

In the House, it backed winners Adam Schiff, Ted Lieu, Jerry Nadler, Katie Hill, Karen Bass, Madeline Dean, Anna Eshoo, Mike Levin, Zoe Lofgren, Doris Matsui, Frank Pallone and three who ran unopposed – Richard Neal, Bobby Scott and Mike Doyle. Come January 1, Schiff will become chair of the Intelligence Committee, Nadler will chair of the Judiciary Committee, and Scott will become chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. The only losing House candidate it backed was Leslie Cockburn, who failed to unseat a Republican incumbent.